This invention relates to rollers for sealing seams in sheet material such as for example roofing sheet material or water pond type sheet material.
It is known to seal together sheet material such as on roofs by applying adhesive material to the edges of the sheets where they are to be joined, overlapping them and permitting the adhesive material to set. The overlapping sections are pressed by a roller to cause the separate sheets to form a better seal with each other.
In one prior art method of this type, hand rollers are used to roll across the seams in a direction that imparts enough pressure by hand to make a seal. If this work is done carelessly, the seal is not permanent and may be wrinkled.
In another prior art method, a hand drill has rollers mounted on it. The rollers orbit in a circle about the drill spindle and apply pressure to the overlapping portion of sheet material to cause them to seal together. This type of device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,400 to Sergant.
The above noted apparatus has several disadvantages, such as for example: (1) they are slow and inefficient; (2) they provide irregular results; (3) an operator from time to time will skip a section thus leaving an unsealed portion of the mat; (4) some undesirable slipping occurs between the pressure roller and the outer surface of the sheet material; and (5) the rollers of a drill mounted seam roller may kick-up or lift the sheet material.